AfterTaste (by Sherry)

This post is dedicated to the dear Mrs. Linda Schiffman, a New Yorker transplanted to the South years and years ago who thinks herself unacceptable just because she doesn’t have a fried chicken recipe. Don’t worry, Linda. As long as you can recognize a good bagel when you taste one, you’re perfectly acceptable.

Here’s the recipe anyway, originally from Paula Deen’s recipe.

Southern Fried Chicken

4 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup water
3 lbs. chicken pieces or chicken wings
Approx. 1 1/2 cups Frank’s Hot Sauce
3-4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tbs. garlic powder
Canola or vegetable oil
Salt and Pepper

• Beat eggs in a large pan/plate along with the water. Stir in hot sauce (egg mixture should turn bright orange). Pour flour in another large pan/plate. Season the flour with four or five big pinches of salt and a hefty amount of freshly ground pepper.
• Season the chicken with the garlic powder and a good sprinkling of salt and pepper.
• Drag the chicken through the egg mixture. Lift the chicken pieces up and let the excess egg drip off back into the pan. Put the chicken pieces in the flour and gently toss the pieces around until they’re well coated. Shake off the excess flour and place the battered chicken pieces on another plate or pan. (Batter most or all of the chicken so you don’t have to worry too much about juggling the frying chicken and battering new pieces at the same time.)
• Heat up oil in a heavy bottomed pot over the highest heat possible. Use enough oil so that it reaches about 3-4 inches up the side of the pot. This large amount of oil takes awhile to heat up so be patient. It should take anywhere from 7-12 minutes. To test the heat of the oil sprinkle a little flour into the oil. If it burns up instantly, it’s too hot (although if you’re like me, you’ve been dancing around, staring at the oil, willing it to get hot, so overheating is rare). If the flour just kind of drifts down to the bottom, it’s too cold. If it just starts to bubble up and fry nicely and moderately, you’re good to go.
• Put a few pieces of chicken in at a time without crowding the pot. Make sure your chicken has room to swim around a little. After your chicken pieces have fried on one side for about 5 minutes, flip them. Keep in mind dark meat takes longer than white meat. Basically, each batch should take about 10-12 minutes. Watch the color of the batter on the chicken as an indicator of when it’s done. The chicken should be a toasty, golden brown when it comes out.
• Meanwhile, have a rack waiting on top of a sheet pan lined with paper towels. If you don’t have a rack, just line a sheet pan with paper towels. Put the cooked chicken on the rack and season each batch right as it comes out with salt.

To keep the chicken warm in between batches you can set your oven to 300 and put the chicken in there, but I prefer to just keep it all next to me on the range. It’s fairly warm up there so it’s fine, but also lukewarm or room temperature fried chicken is still deeeeeelicious, especially when it’s been very well drained of oil so that it stays crispy.

Also, it may seem like a lot of hot sauce, but the chicken comes out only with the slightest tang and zip.

I know this recipe seems complicated, but if you’ve ever fried anything, you’ll know that 1) it seems more complicated than it is, 2) the key is keeping the oil hot, and 3) it’s more time consuming and messy than anything else.

But the prospect of juicy, salty, crunchy fried chicken? So worth it.

Or something like that.

That’s the typical reaction I’ve been getting to the latest Life Decision I’ve made. After a lot of thought and consideration, a lot of soul searching and weighing of pros and cons, a lot of whining and wailing to patient friends, I’ve finally arrived at the answer to all the questions surrounding my future, my more immediate future anyway.

Hold onto your hats, ladies and gents. This gal’s going to culinary school.

Yep, you heard me right. I’m going to cooking school. It’s just a matter of which one now. I plan on starting sometime at the end of August or early September.

AHHHHHHHH!

I hardly know how to react to all the invariably supportive people that I’ve told. Everyone seems to be super excited for me. “That’s so cool! That’s gonna be so fun!” they exclaim. I think a large part of what makes people so enthused is the prospect of knowing a future chef…and that’s fine by me. I don’t mind being novel.

The two schools in the running right now are the French Culinary Institute (FCI) in SoHo and the Institute of Culinary Education (ICE) over in the Flatiron District. FCI has the connections and opportunities that a young chef would die for, but ICE provides the option of a dual culinary and management degree. FCI’s program is intensive and quick, whereas ICE’s is longer, but much more flexible. After tours of both schools, I’m leaning more towards one than the other, but I’m not going to say which one yet.

Stick around for the big reveal in the next couple of weeks to find out where I’ll be enrolling.

Translation: “Gifts from Paris and Belgium”

My lovely soeur (sister) recently returned from a two week jaunt through Paris, Belgium, and Germany. She brought me back a few delectable gifts perfectly suited to my primary interests in life (eating and cooking).

First a box of mind blowing Belgian chocolates from Bruges.

The variety box she got me was filled with hazel nut chocolates, almondy caramel chocolates, and white chocolate marzipan chocolates among many, many others (like one with rice krispies and another with butter cream inside). Those Belgians know their chocolate, no doubt. Respect.

The other gift I got was the recipe book below filled with pictures of a cracked out redhead who loves to cook. Love it.

Translation: “My Notebook of Recipes”

Oh yeah, she also brought me an impossibly soft t-shirt from some French brand called Zadig et Voltaire. But who wants to hear about that?

Cafe Habana
17 Prince Street (Corner of Prince and Elizabeth Streets)
(212) 625-2002 Reservations Not Accepted

Nolita (short for “North of Little Italy,” absurd, I know) is a small segment of Manhattan that I don’t get to as often as I would like: just a tad too far north of my job, a tad too far south of Matt’s neighborhood, a touch too far east of SoHo. And yet it’s full of great bars, shopping, and, most importantly, food.

Yesterday, in celebration of Matt’s last final of his first year of law school and per my friend, Aline’s, recommendation, Matt, my two coworkers/friends (Mr. and Mrs. Derby), and I traipsed there for lunch at Cafe Habana.

Didn’t I say it was just a tad too far north of my job? Yes, I did, and it is, but with the sun shining and the general pop and buzz in the air that goes along with the idea of one’s last final of the year (Mr. and Mrs. Derby and I are not so old as to forget that incredible feeling) we were willing to make the trip.

The small corner diner has touches of ’50s flare with its curved booths and polished counter, and yet still evokes the idea that you might just be in some breezy spot in Cuba with palm trees painted on the walls. I suppose illegally since US Citizens are technically not allowed to go there.

Disclaimer: AfterTaste (by Sherry) does not condone illegal travel or violations of any US embargoes.

Anyhoo, while the four of us were shoved in the back corner of the joint, we didn’t mind considering the wait was the five minutes that the waitress had promised us.

We shared an order of the grilled Mexican corn (2 ears) loaded with butter, crumbly queso fresco, and lime. It was a salty, cheesy, creamy mess that should not be missed. It is cleverly served with a pile of toothpicks.

I had the grilled steak and corn atop mixed greens and dotted with fried tortilla strips. The greens were tossed in just enough vinaigrette to coat each leaf. Overall, it was a lighter way to enjoy a large hunk of lean, tender steak charred to near perfection during the daylight hours. Next time, however, I will order it without the tortilla strips since chasing little kernels of grilled corn around the plate is time consuming enough without having to figure out how to stab thick, crunchy strips of tortilla.

Matt had the fish tacos, which came with rice and beans. He loved the tacos, which were filling, but not too heavy, as well as the rice and beans, which were far tastier than most.

Dan’s steak sandwich was loaded with peppers and onions and made him want to curl up and take an afternoon siesta…but in a good way. And Jenny’s mango and jicama over mixed greens was refreshing and light. She cleaned her plate of every single leaf.

To top this extravagant lunch off, I had a frozen strawberry margarita served in a classically tall, tapered sundae-style glass. It tasted like the most balanced frozen strawberry lemonade you’ve ever had. Not too syrupy sweet, but not too tart with just a hint of tequila, it was just what I needed as I sat sweating profusely in my gray pant suit surrounded by hipsters in flowy, chambray sundresses with leather bags slung lazily over their shoulders.

Oh yeah, and by “extravagant,” I was referring solely to the somewhat rich, delectable flavors of our meal, not at all to the price, a rarity in such a trendy neighborhood as Nolita.

So go, be prepared to wait a bit, and definitely get the corn.

Lunch Bill (for Four):

• Grilled Mexican Corn - $3.75
• Grilled Steak and Corn Salad - $11.50
• Fish Tacos - $9.95
• Mango and Jicama Salad - $7.50
• Steak Sandwich - $8.95
• 2 Pacifico Beers - $9
• Frozen Strawberry Margarita - $7.95
• Total (not including tax and tip) = $58.60

PS-If you don’t feel like waiting, there’s a take out window right next door to the restaurant. Take your order with you or eat it sitting on one of the benches by the curb.

A few months ago, my sister stumbled upon a description of a class at the Institute of Culinary Education (aka ICE) that, for my birthday, she registered me for, “Culinary Career Exploration Day,” an eight hour day full of lectures and a professional-style cooking class all aimed at helping the hapless and career-confused decide if culinary school or any career in the culinary industry is right for them. Absolutely perfect for me, right?

The day was fascinating and seemed to pass in a flash and while I was exhausted at the end of the day, it wasn’t exhaustion from meetings or reporting to bosses (or, worse yet, the gym). It was blissful exhaustion from demonstrations of ideal knife skills, learning how to stuff a chicken breast with goat cheese, and learning that you can actually make money in the food industry.

The cooking portion was taught by Chef Karen Schley, an affable, easy going, articulate chef who is an actual instructor at ICE. Before donning our aprons Chef Karen pointed out to us the increased interest in the food industry in the past twenty years due to celebrity chefs, the Food Network, and reality television shows like Top Chef and Hell’s Kitchen. She asserted that those aspects of being a chef (fame, fortune, psychotically abusive little English men) are a tiny percentage of the realities of the food industry. She then went on to emphasize hygiene in the kitchen and keeping your cutting board/station clean (”always think of sushi chefs,” she said).

It took the dozen of us approximately four hours to prep and make a mixed salad with tomato concassé (peeled and seeded little tomato cubes) and sliced cucumbers with a basic vinaigrette, a breaded chicken breast stuffed with herb goat cheese, roasted vegetables (cauliflower, parsnips, potatoes, asparagus), and a rice pilaf (fancier word for fluffy rice with onions). I have to admit, my knife skills were pretty kick ass, but I still despise making rice.

All fun and self-discovery aside, the class was one giant publicity/orientation event for ICE, but that was to be expected. At one point, when we had sat down in the kitchen at a white clothed table to enjoy the fruits of our labor for lunch, the associate director of admissions joined us and made sure none of us walked out the door without her card and without our goody bags which, among other things, included brochures about successful ICE alums and how to apply.

The management lecture portion after lunch was led by Steve Zagor, the head of ICE’s culinary management diploma program. He was a funny, slightly awkward, but clearly very experienced “restaurant guy.” He rattled off his credentials, which included stints as a big time restaurant consultant for PriceWaterhouse Cooper, owning several restaurants, and teaching marketing and finance at NYU’s well-known food and nutrition program. He went through hot food trends in NYC in the food world (diners, locally grown produce, cupcakes, Asian fusion, etc.), as well as important aspects of the American demographic today (the average age of Americans is getting older, families go where children are welcome).

I loved every minute of it and am now more conflicted than ever. I had written culinary school off, saying, “absolutely not, never,” but now I’m not so sure. I experienced this inner turmoil to some degree when I visited the Culinary Institute of America, but it seemed so unattainable that it was easy to push the notion out of my mind. The fantasy of going to school to cook all day and study food all night thrills me though. For me, there is nothing about that that does not appeal to me.  So where to go from here? I’m not sure. Sigh.

I wish I had never gone.

Last Saturday I had my own little Kentucky Derby party, New York-style. Isn’t the Derby this Saturday, you ask? Yeah…so?

The point is I wanted to throw a fun, festive dinner party and someone suggested Kentucky Derby as a theme. I’ve rarely had a chance to cook Southern food so I jumped at the opportunity to test out some Southern recipes on my guinea pig friends.

I typed the menu out pretty quickly after a whirl around the Internet researching typical Derby/Kentuckian food, not comprehending how much work it would be.

Menu:

• Mint Juleps (naturally)
• BBQ Sweet Potato Chips
• Benedictine Finger Sandwiches
• Southern Fried Chicken Wings
• Sticky Honey BBQ Pulled Pork Bar with Cole Slaw and Baked BBQ Beans
• Citrus Asparagus Salad

Quite ambitious, no? Made all the more ambitious by my debilitating Spring allergies that decided to freak out in full force these past two weeks. At one point, oh, I’d say around 11am Saturday morning, as I began gearing up for this bash and really began cooking, I thought to myself, “WHAT AM I DOING? I CAN’T EVEN TASTE. HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO COOK?” Nothing is more important to a home chef than her taste buds, not dexterity, not vision, just that precious tongue. But I already had 10 hungry people depending on me for bourbon and dinner so I pressed on.

With “My Old Kentucky Home” and “The Gambler” blaring, my friends and I munched our way through pounds and pounds of crunchy fried chicken, sweet asparagus, dainty cream cheese sandwiches, and crisp cole slaw (my way). The biggest hits of the night were the fried chicken, cole slaw, and the mashed potatoes.

For the chicken, I followed Paula Deen’s recipe on foodnetwork.com. It came out great. The only changes I made were that I used split chicken wings and that I seasoned the flour with salt and garlic powder in addition to the black pepper that the recipe calls for. The next time I make this (and if Matt and my friends have any say in it, there will be a next time and soon) I will try double dipping the chicken. Meaning instead of doing one round of chicken-in-egg-mixture and chicken-rolled-in-flour, I’ll do two.

I’m posting the cole slaw and mashed potato recipes, because they were the most popular and are truly my own, especially the cole slaw which I was particularly proud of. I normally hate cole slaw for its heavily sweet, one dimensional mayo-y flavor. Even the vinegar based cole slaws are always still a little too sweet for my tastes. So I made cole slaw the way I wanted: spicy and tangy. And judging by everyone else’s reaction, it’s the way they wanted it too (but never realized it).

And They’re Off!…Pigs.

Spicy Sherry Slaw

1 package pre-shredded cole slaw mix (cabbage and carrots)
2-3 scallions, chopped
4-5 tsp. reduced fat mayo
3 tsp. Dijon mustard
Juice of 1 lemon
2 tbs. white vinegar
3-4 dashes garlic powder
5-6 dashes onion powder
3 dashes smoked paprika
2 tbs. Frank’s Red Hot Sauce (or however spicy you’d like it)
2 dashes Worcestershire sauce (optional)
Salt and Pepper

Serves 6-8.

1. Whisk together all the ingredients besides the scallions and cole slaw mix. The dressing should be a pale, pale yellow-y pink and should be thin. Use the above amounts as a general guide, but you might like it slightly sweeter or less tangy or more spicy. Feel free to go nuts.
2. Toss the dressing with the cole slaw mix and scallions (reserving a pinch of scallions as a pretty garnish).
3. Chill in the fridge for at least 1 hour. Toss once more and garnish it with reserved scallions right before serving.

Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes

1 lb. Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and diced
1/4 - 1/3 cup heavy cream or half and half, room temperature
6 cloves garlic, unpeeled and whole
4 tbs. unsalted butter, room temperature
Salt and pepper
Olive oil

Serves 4.

1. Heat oven to 300 degrees. To roast garlic, place whole cloves in foil and cover in olive oil. Loosely wrap foil around the garlic, leaving it open a bit. Roast garlic in oven for approximately 20 minutes or until garlic is very soft when you poke it.
2. Put peeled and diced potatoes into a large pot of salted water. Place pot over high heat and cover. When water comes to a boil, check the potatoes for doneness by inserting a knife into the middle of a couple of the cubes of potato. The knife should go cleanly in and come out easily. By the time the water has been boiling the potatoes should be done.
3. Drain the water from the potatoes and place the potatoes back in the hot pot they cooked in so the heat from the pot dries up the water clinging to the potatoes. Begin mashing potatoes. Add cream, butter, garlic, salt and pepper. Taste for salt content and creaminess. Add more butter if not rich enough. Add more cream if too dense or if it’s not coming together smoothly. Add more salt if…well, you know. Finish mashing until smooth.

Mint Juleps Noo Yawk Style

5 cups water
3 cups sugar
1 bunch fresh mint
1-2 bottles Kentucky Bourbon (Jim Beam)
Tub full of shaved or crushed ice

Serves anywhere from 1 (yikes) - 15.

1. Boil sugar in water over medium high heat until sugar completely dissolves. This is not the ratio for a typical simple syrup, which is usually 1:1, but when I did that initially it was tooooooo sweet and syrupy.
2. When sugar is dissolved, take syrup off the heat and drop in six or seven mint leaves while the syrup cools. The mint will turn brown. That’s okay, just make sure to fish these out after the syrup is room temperature (brown floaty things in your drink ain’t pretty). Add six or seven fresh mint leaves in syrup again. Put syrup in the fridge. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
3. Serve mint julep in a small cup (preferably a silver one) by piling ice high in the cup, pouring in about one shot of bourbon, and filling most of the rest of the cup with mint syrup. Garnish with mint and a short straw (I bought flexi-straws and trimmed them with scissors). I say short straw because as the drinker sips from the straw, your nose is pushed into the mint garnish and fills with the beautiful scent of mint…which then masks the horse poo smell.

Other Tips for a Derby Party:

• Buy paper plates from a children’s store or some party supply store with horses on them. They exist, trust me. Just avoid the ones with cowboys on them. Unfortunately, Manhattan has a severe shortage of party supply stores so instead of horses I just got some pretty pastel green plates with very genteel white ribbon and flower patterns on them and striped pink and white and green and white napkins that reminded me of seersucker.
• If you’re dying to make fried chicken but can’t deal with making that much chicken, make fried chicken wings. They’re just as delicious and taste the same, just in miniature.
• Decorate the house with red roses (like the wreath thing that the winning horse wears).
• Wear a seersucker blazer or a giant flowery hat with a flowery sundress.
• If you can’t get silver julep cups, get small silvery paper cups. Please, no 16 oz. blue Solo cups.
• Make as much ahead of time as possible, but of course that goes for any type of party.

Mr. and Mrs. Derby

Atlantic Grill
1341 Third Avenue (between 76th and 77th Streets)
(212) 988-9200

I’ve decided to add mini-reviews to my repertoire of posts since I tend to agonize over my regular restaurant reviews so much that it takes forever to publish them. Sometimes I go to a restaurant that for whatever reason I feel doesn’t warrant an extensive review. Either I don’t bring my camera or I don’t have time to write a 3000 word review, but I want to post about it, dammit! So, to alleviate my guilt and increase my average number of posts per week, I’m going to write some shorter posts from time to time where I won’t go into detail about decor or service unless something really stands out. This begins now.

Friday evening was so beautiful Matt and I were hell-bent on dining outdoors, but being the lazy bums we are, we didn’t feel like leaving my neighborhood. We also had intense cravings for fresh seafood. The only place I knew of around here that fit the bill (outdoor seating, raw bar, fresh seafood, delicious) was Atlantic Grill. Now, for my tax bracket, Atlantic Grill is not a place I would go to for a regular dinner on a regular Friday night, but as luck would have it, my birthday gift from Pri, a certificate for $50 off any meal at any of the BR Guest Restaurants, had arrived a few weeks ago. So even though it would still be more than we’d typically spend, Matt and I thought, in the spirit of a warm, carefree mid-spring eve, why not.

We each began with six oysters (a combo of East and West coasts) with a thyme mignonette, reminding me once more, as if I need to be reminded, how absolutely gonzo I am about oysters. Fresh, salty, smooth, supple, they were exactly what I had imagined myself eating on a night where the thermometer reached 75 degrees.

For our main courses, I had the porcini crusted scallops and jumbo shrimp and Matt had the crab crusted golden snapper over mushroom gnocchi. The scallops and shrimp were then rolled in granules of pulverized dried porcini and pan seared making for a flavor packed, smoky coating. These sat on a lump of mashed potatoes dotted with halved red grapes and some asparagus spears. Each bite was salty from the porcini, sweet from the shellfish and grapes, creamy from the potatoes, and crunchy from the asparagus, perfectly balanced contrasts. And you know how much I love perfectly balanced contrasts.

Matt’s snapper had a disappointingly small number of gnocchi and the crab played a much smaller role than I had expected, but the truffle oil lifted the snapper to a respectable flavor level worthy of praise.

Despite a potentially catastrophic incident involving a giant heating lamp and a retractable awning, Matt and I had found the exact dining experience we had been desperately looking for.

Dinner for Two:

• Platter of 3 East Coast and 3 West Coast Oysters ($12 x 2) - $24
• Porcini Crusted Scallops and Jumbo Shrimp - $26
• Crab Crusted Golden Snapper - $26
• Bottle of Riesling - $49
• Total (excluding tax and tip) = $125 - $50 (gift) = $75

Community Food and Juice
2893 Broadway (between 112th and 113th Streets)
(212) 665-2800 (Reservations not accepted)

My humblest apologies for having disappeared for two weeks. My job search has begun in earnest and it’s been a little distracting. There really are no good excuses though. I also forgot to charge my camera on the night I dined at Community Food and Juice so there are no pictures from that dinner. I fail at life. Anyway, back to business.

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of dining at Community Food and Juice with two good friends of mine, Tara and Kyle. They recently moved into a new neighborhood (Morningside Heights/Columbia University area) and a visit to their new apartment was long overdue. After I ooh-ed and ahh-ed at their 12 foot ceilings and large kitchen and they ooh-ed and ahh-ed over the Levain cookies I brought them as a housewarming gift, we went to dinner. Community Food and Juice is just one of many examples of the latest restaurant trends in NYC today, the trend of earth and farm conscious, organically minded, and locally oriented menus enhanced by wooden communal tables and menus made of recycled paper, a little pricey and a little self righteous. But churning out delicious, fresh, seasonal dishes generally excuses them of those flaws.

Community Food and Juice is no exception, although it takes this concept a step further being one of a few restaurants certified by the Green Restaurant Association (along with others such as Fiamma Osteria and all branches of Le Pain Quotidien).

On this evening (a Thursday, I believe it was), the three of us arrived at approximately 8:15pm and were seated right away toward the end of a long rough-hewn communal table (one problem with such an au natural table: when the waitress sloshed my overflowing cocktail it dripped through the porous slab and onto my lap).

To start Kyle and I shared the zucchini scallion pancakes. Tara the resident nutrition/health nut had the farmer’s chopped salad. If you’re expecting/wanting your corner Chinese restaurant’s scallion pancakes, you may be disappointed in Community’s. I, on the other hand, was thoroughly delighted by them. Unfortunately, the zucchini gets a bit lost in a sea of onion-y scallions and the vinegary sweet dipping sauce. The dough binding the cake together is crisp on the outside, similar to a classic scallion pancake, and sticky on the inside. The cakes were satisfyingly savory, tart, crisp, and gooey.

The chopped salad was hearty and crunchy with sunflower seeds and radishes among many other ingredients, all chopped and sprinkled finely over the greens, so while it sounds like there’s a lot of junk in/on it, the flavors are well balanced.

Tara also had the rice bowl, which had that Ahab-and-the-whale elusive quality of tasting both healthy and incredibly delicious. Carrots and bean sprouts provide crunch. The brown rice provides filling, fiber-y warmth and the vinaigrette provides a necessary tang.

Kyle and I both had the cheeseburger. Community does a fabulously precise job of melting the traditionally difficult to melt Cabot Vermont white cheddar. The caramelized onions can be had on the side. I love onions so I smothered my burger in them. The fries were of the typical crispy, brown, skin on variety that some are fanatical about, but I am merely tolerant of. The meat was juicy and the bun was a buttery brioche. A burger worthy of praise and attention in a town full of burgers worthy of praise and attention.

All in all a healthy (except maybe for the burgers), well priced, organic meal that was delicious enough to drag me up to 112th street again sometime in the future. As for those who live around there? Well, Kyle’s already been there two other times since then. Does that answer your question?

Dinner (for Three):

• Zucchini Scallion Pancakes - $5
• Farmer’s Chop Salad - $10
• Rice Bowl - $9
• Cheeseburger ($13 x 2)- $26
• Total (excluding tax and tip) = $50